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Satellite projects

Awareness of the potential offered by real-time worldwide communications and the various communication technologies (telephone, telex, fax, computer networks, teleconferencing systems, satellite technology) was a many-sided source of inspiration to artists. As early as 1961­1962, Nam June Paik devised a piano concert for simultaneous performance in San Francisco and Shanghai, with the left-hand part being played in the USA and the right-hand part in China. His idea may have been somewhat premature in regard to feasibility, but it shows how well informed he was. The first telecast between America and Europe took place over Telstar 2 in July 1962.[30] However, fifteen years would pass before artists set up the first two-way satellite communications link: «Two Way-Demo» was the title of a live two-way broadcast between New York and San Francisco on September 10­11, 1977. Liza Bear, Keith Sonnier and Willoughby Sharp–the initiators of this first transcontinental satellite TV conference–were allowed

to use the NASA satellite CTS, which had gone into orbit in 1976. Other participating artists included Andy Horowitz (alongside the organizers on the East Coast), and Carl Loeffler and Terry Fox on the West Coast. The broadcast consisted of discussion and debate, readings, and prerecorded video footage. Nineteen seventy­seven was also the year in which Joseph Beuys, Douglas Davis, Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik contributed performances to the live satellite telecast celebrating the opening of the media-oriented documenta 6 in Kassel. During the festival, artist's videotapes were shown on television and three performances (by, respectively, Beuys, Paik and Moorman, and Davis) were broadcast live over satellite (albeit without a feedback channel that would have allowed the possibility of viewer interaction). The telecast ended with the performance «The Last Nine Minutes,» in which Douglas Davis attempted to symbolically break through the TV screen and establish direct communication with his audience. Since the telecast was relayed live to more than thirty other